Posts Tagged ‘Cardboard Children’

KAOSBALL. In Scotland we call it KAOSBAW. It’s a sports game – that sport being a futuristic sport of endzones and punching and crunching. It seems like future sports are going to be really violent, doesn’t it? I bet, in the year 2300, even golf will allow you to pound your opponents to death with a 9 iron. Darts will have explosive tips, and the bullseye will be marked on your opponent’s forehead. Boxing will be inside a volcano. Gymnastics will feature barbed-wire leotards.

There is SO much board game news right now that we really have to do another column that is about BOARD GAME NEWS. Company mergers, massive releases, re-prints, you name it – it’s all happening in the wide world of sports we call “Board Game Sports”. (We don’t call it that.)

War, eh? It’s no laughing matter, really. It seems like every single time a war happens, somebody ends up getting hurt. Since the beginning of recorded history, wars have caused a catalogue of injuries from a little finger boo-boo all the way to a blasted into dust by a mad big bomb. Say what you want about wars – you have to agree that they come with their fair share of inconveniences.

If you want to have a wee war on your table, you’ve come to the right place. Let Grand Side-General of the Ambassador Florence (I don’t know anything about military ranks) tell you all about HEROES OF NORMANDIE.

All y’all know that I’m a big fan of Space Hulk, right? Well, I wanted to tell you about a game called INCURSION. I have the first edition of the game, and a new edition had a successful Kickstarter last year. The game hasn’t gone out to backers yet, but I kinda like what I’ve seen of that Kickstarter campaign. Only the backers will receive the game, and the creators aren’t making much money from it at all. They’re just shipping a beautiful version of their game to people who supported it. They’re shipping later than expected, but they’ve been keeping people updated with everything that’s happening. It all just seems pretty decent between backer and creator, which is good going in the Kickstarter world, to be honest.

It’s a game that seems to be heavily inspired by Space Hulk, but it’s like… far cheaper. It’s not as good, I’ll say that right up front. But it’s VERY solid, a lot of fun, and much cheaper to track down than old Space Hulk is. You will be able to find the first edition of Incursion for a reasonable price. So read on.

Today I want to talk to you about an old board game called Jumanji. It’s long out of print, and quite difficult to find these days, but it’s a game that delivers a unique experience. The game fell out of favour in some quarters because of its supernatural qualities, but I’ve never let the destruction of a family home get in the way of a good board game experience.

Oh what potential there is in the unopened box. For my birthday last week (37 years old! Am I the oldest person on Rock Paper Shotgun? Oh my goodness. Maybe.) my girlfriend ordered me an indie board game called CAVE EVIL. It was pretty expensive, but it’s a real home-made thing, a unique and beautiful thing. It sits unopened, in an unopened box. When I’ve played it I’ll be sure to tell you about it, but at the moment it sits unopened inside an unopened box.

An unopened box. Can I explain to you why an unopened box excites me so much? Please read on.

Sidibaba sidibaba. Sidibaba sidibaba sidibaba. Sidibaba. Sidibaba sidibaba sidibaba. Now, I know this looks like I’m just trying to flesh out my word count by repeating gibberish, the way a writer on Buzzfeed might do. But no, Sidibaba is actually the name of a board game. And it’s a really enjoyable word to say. Try it yourself!

Every home should have a good family game. What is a family game? It’s a game that the whole family can play, obviously. Can’t you work any of this stuff out for yourself? If I have to explain every single concept to you we’re going to be here all day! Anyway, a great family game is something that mum, dad, the kids, granny and the weird lodger in the basement can play. It is easy to explain, plays quick, and great fun. It also helps if it looks beautiful. Sadly, a game with all these qualities is as rare as rocking horse shit (which is even more rare nowadays – jeez, when was the last time you even saw a rocking horse?). Oh, but, anyway, point is, I got a family game for you. Read on.

In this silly old board and card gaming world, heavy, serious shit doesn’t happen much. When heavy, serious shit does happen, I think it’s really weird to ignore it. At the moment, certain people are talking about a boycott of the card game Cards Against Humanity.Read the rest of this entry »

It is very easy to lose things when living in the thrall of the endless bear. You make something, you put it down and suddenly it’s gone, lost over the horizon. You type some words into the search box to try to find it again but, alas, the Rock Paper Shotgun Search-O-Tron 3000 returns nothing.

And so here we are, to gather Rab’s Complete Top 50 Boardgames posts into a single set of links, better that you might bookmark it, print it out, study it, love it. Did you ever wonder what boardgames you should play? We’ve got five videos and five articles that will tell you.

Many thanks for watching that epic Top 50 Board Games of all time video series. I had a lot of fun doing it, and it made me revisit a lot of my favourite games. Today we’ll talk about something new. Merchant of Venus is a trading game set in space, and it’s considered a bit of a classic. Does it still stand up today? Read on.

Before my final video next week, my TOP 10 BOARD GAMES OF ALL TIME, I wanted to write about the games that I missed from the list. I’ll give you the reasons why. I’ll talk a little bit about games that will probably end up on the list at some point. Basically, these games need to be called out right here, because each one gives me a pang of hurty-hurty about why they ain’t on my list.